What do you think about an economic revolution?
During WW2, many Americans greatly decreased their consumer spending. The Great Depression forced Americans to buy less, and taught them how to save their money. By the time WW2 came about, they still resisted excessive spending in hopes of contributing to the war efforts; allowing much of the money to be put forth in the war.
As with everything, we have still not learned from the past. We spend for neccessity and we spend for convinience. One of the biggest expenses that Americans have trouble with today are gas prices, especially young people. Every week, people put large dents in their wallet by spending perhaps $80 to fill up their gasoline tank. It's all about supply and demand. As long as the majority of cars are run by gasoline, and as long as we continue to spend outragous amounts of money for it, the economy will face trouble.
I say we strike! Set an embargo with the middle east, not trading as much oil. Easier said than done though, I know. What good would it do anyway, in terms of the Iraq war? would it make things worse?? I don't know. But by not buying as much oil from them than we do now, what kind of things could happen?...
First off, the Middle East will not take in as much income as before, since we are one of their largest consumers of oil. So this would hurt their economy, which wouldn't be so bad if they were all terrorists...but their not. Most of them arn't. Either way, prices are going up, and we can't afford to hurt our economy at the expense of being nice and trading with the Middle East.
How would striking agains gas prices, or setting an embargo to the Middle East affect us? We'd probably be shot in the foot. We use gas run cars everyday! We can't afford to lose this beautiful piece of transportation. How would we go to school; how would we go to work?? It's a problem. On the up side of things, the United States would be forced to find an alternative to gas run cars, such as hydropower, or electric/gas... this has been a process in the making, but a slow process at that.
What would it cost us if America just stopped buying gas for a week? It might temporarily hurt us. There may be immidiate "disaster". But what if it helps in the long run. We are afraid to do this because of the unknowing of what will happen. I'm just thinking out loud here.I am a liberal but yet a conservative; a philosopher, a writer, and a revolutionist!
Start the economic revolution! One car...One week...Save $80 for yourself...Save $millions for America...and find a cost efficient alternative fuel source for cars.
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I heard today that oil prices are the highest ever, and prices at the pumps are expected to reach $4.00 this summer (at least in the northeast). An embargo would be an excellent idea and it takes something drastic to get the ball rolling. However, as you also said, this would be pretty extreme. Our economy is so dependent on oil. So many people commute to work every day, and the majority of people live at least 15 minutes away from their jobs.
As someone who recently held a position where I had to travel an hour and 15 minutes one-way to work every day, something like this would be damn near impossible. And since alternatives to gas and oil are not available or cost-effective for the masses, maybe there are other things we could do first.
Encourage car pooling and use public transportation if its available. If you live close enough to your job, try walking, biking, or even rollerblading to work. (An added health bonus!) Instead of such a huge undertaking like boycotting gas, we should start at an individual level. If we can make the small changes first, then the bigger ones could happen more easily.
I'm reasonably sure than an embargo on the middle east would hurt us more than them. OPEC controls a large portion of the supply of oil that goes into the international market. If the US refused to buy oil from OPEC countries we would suffer from a far smaller supply (greater cost), while they would cut their supply to the rest of the world and maintain high profits. Plus China is an expanding market.
-m-